Birthstar launches CPD Research Series

Birthstar, a research and advisory firm for asset managers and intermediaries, has launched a CPD research series on rethinking retirement. The research is designed to help advisers navigate the new pension freedoms with their clients.

The series is designed to assist with the theory and practice underpinning retirement planning from both an investment and behavioural perspective.

The series begins with a paper entitled ‘Rethinking Retirement Investing’, which focuses on the concept of asset/liability investing, making sure that both remain aligned to clients’ objectives.

The paper expresses that financial advisers have a key role to play in combining the building blocks of retirement: state pension, defined benefit schemes, target date funds, annuity contracts and life insurance.

The series is triple accredited by the Personal Finance Society, the Institute of Financial Planning and the Pensions Management Institute.

Henry Cobbe, Head of Research at Birthstar, said: “The underlying principle of launching the CPD series is because with the new pension freedoms the responsibility of managing decumulation has shifted from the insurers to the advisers.

“Pre the Budget reforms, advisers were just worried about equities and bonds; the building blocks are quite different and much more complex now and need to get brought together in a holistic way.”

To view the modules, visit the CPD page on our BirthStarLearning website. Summary versions of each paper are included in the Learning Outcome Review (LOR). For advisers who want to convert the module to structured learning, there is an online test.

The BirthStar CPD Research Series is complemented by a series of CPD-accredited workshops in London, Guildford, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh led by BirthStar’s research team: Shweta Agarwal PhD, Henry Cobbe CFA and Ranye Lu MSc. If you would like to attend one of BirthStar workshops or recorded webinars, please visit our events page.